Every year Hanaeleh’s horses get their teeth floated, or filed down, by an equine veterinarian. Even though our horses are fed between three to five times per day, they still don’t wear their teeth the same way they would in the wild, and need to have waves and sharp edges filed down before they become bigger issues. Hanaeleh is dedicated to providing exemplary care for all of our horses, and we ensure that our horses have their teeth checked and floated once a year.
This year our volunteers took a day off of spring break to help the vet with the teeth floating. The horses are lightly sedated so they do not move, and the vets use power dentistry tools in order to get the floats done quickly and efficiently. The vets were even able to use an alternative sedation on Stetson in order to get his teeth done as well.
Once their teeth were done, the geldings had their sheaths cleaned while they were still sedated. This is not the most glamorous job, but it is necessary to clean the smegma from their sheaths to prevent beans from forming. It is always safer to complete this job while the horse is still a little sedated so they don’t try to kick us!
Things went very well during the float (and sheath cleaning), and we got ready to go home….
(to be continued)
Brutus gets his teeth floated.
Looking at Brutus’ teeth
Not the most glamorous job
We knew Brutus was still sedated because he didn’t try to bite us.
Brutus was very snuggly while he was still slightly sedated.